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Dear Friends,
Yesterday a a Russian fighter jet was downed by the Turkish Military after it had presumably entered it's airspace. Here in the US a group of white men sprayed bullets into a group of black anti-racism protestors. Americans trade barbs over inviting refugees into our native land.
And even now, Thanksgiving.
The pope calls this holiday season a charade when we hear of wars. How can we celebrate in this connected world, when suffering is so amplified and omnipresent. We say Jesus is King. But how is that so?
The scripture says that he was not kind of any nation, nor of any identifiable institution in the world. His kingship would be one based on truth telling. And yet, being a monarch means he would be a target; and also provide one way of understanding the world we live in. He would exposing how we are ourselves responsible for violence, and that we also have the power to love one another.
He did not say that any single one of us owns or has the truth; instead, what is true is sought together, with each of us doing the best we can to discover, understand and be changed by it. In a world where we think a snarky Facebook meme makes us experts, we need to remember the spiritual work that values vulnerability, curiosity, and growth as virtues. I see so many people who have become experts on race, religion, and foreign policy; and perhaps we all could question our own assumptions a bit more.
For there is a destabilizing aspect of seeking truth, because it forces us to remember first we don't know everything, if anything at all. I can only be sure we each can find ways to screw things up, where even the best of intentions create havoc; but with only some grace can we repair the world. But that takes a willingness to give up the comforts of self-righteousness and our own need for order and security - needs that can never be fully met.
And yet the other day I saw a short video of Syrians who's only work is to help rescue people in the midst of war. That's all they do. As the bombs fall, they gather up the living and do the best they can to find survivors. Others may take sides, rush to arms, and get caught up in the outrage machine, easily offended, eager for vengeance, desirous of vindication. But instead this group focuses on one thing - to find the living bodies under the rubble and bring them up for air, so that they may live.
Sometimes we cannot sit on the fence, that is true. But the way we delineate the sides is different, if not unworldly. Our side is not left or right, conservative or liberal, but always on the side of the living. And so we search for the bodies, claw our fingers through the rubble, remove the rocks that have covered them, and bring them out into the sun.
We do this because Christ is our King, and He came to save the living. That we all may live.
Fr. Gawain +
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